Neat Freak in Disguise

TODDY’S HOME!! TODDY’S HOME!!! It was a long week-and-a-half and we’re so glad it’s over!!

Since he’s been either in a nice hotel or at his brother and sister-in-law’s, and therefore has become used to cleanliness, I decided he should come home to a nice, clean room and bathroom. (I’m pretty good at redirecting responsibility and tonight is no different. Those of you who don’t know me will probably think this is a good excuse. Those of you who DO know me will know the lie for what it is.) Because our guest room is currently being used by Ben I’m having to pile stuff up in our room so it’s been a bit messy. (Never mind the messiness before Ben moved in. If I think hard enough I can give you a reason for that, too.) But no longer, unless you look in my sitting room. It’s still a disaster. That’s my project for next week.

In recent years I’ve discovered something about myself. To look at various parts of my house one would think I have a problem with clutter. But at heart I’m actually a neat freak. For example, when I’m picking up I want to start by cleaning out closets and drawers and cupboards. But when I do that I end up with a much larger mess before running out of steam. Or I start a project like that when I’m on a timeline and then up totally stressed out. Not today, though. Oh, my fingers itched to empty all my dresser drawers and get rid of non-wearables. But I curbed my urge and just put away, put away, put away.

Cleaning my bathroom leads me to a little whine. I’m very happy with my house. It’s a nice size – not too big, not too small – we see it as a blessing and we try to bless others with it. The only thing I don’t like is our bathroom and our small closets. We have a decent size shower and a lovely jacuzzi tub, a double vanity and fairly good storage. But there is very little counter space. On the other side of the wall are two small walk in closets with a considerable lack of area.

If their common wall is the vertical line in a “T”, the horizontal line is a wall that is shared by a floored attic. Some day I want to knock out that wall and redesign both the bathroom and the closets. I want more counter space in the bathroom and a separate room for the commode. And in my closet I want shelves specifically for purses! Doesn’t that sound nice??

Do you like your closet? If you could change anything about it what would it be?

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18 Comments

HAHAHA! This sounds like me. My house always looks cluttered and “messy” but my problem is the same. I can’t stand half-doing a job and tend to go overboard when I do. Which, in the end, looks like nothing ever gets done. 🙁 I’m forever “cleaning my room” and end up with piles of clothes to give-away. And I never seem to have the time to run to Good Will, so the piles remain. I’d love a bigger bathroom. And I like the idea of a shelf for purses. Maybe some special racks for shoes?

I’m exactly the same way about cleaning…I want to rip it apart from the ground up and clean it thoroughly.I really like the layout of our house. It’s a modest little home, but perfect for our needs. But if I could change anything, it would be to take back the two feet that were borrowed from kitchen to make the master bedroom bigger, creating this goofy ‘jut’ into the kitchen, which makes it just a little too tight for a dining set to go in there.I would rather have sacrificed the space in the master bedroom, freeing up the current (carpeted) dining area for use as one big great room more suited to entertaining in our home.As you can imagine, carpeted dining areas and toddlers aren’t a good combination.

Perhaps we should do a “coming out of the closet post”. We take photos of our closets next week, then take an “after the make-over” photo one month later. What do you think? I will post on my blog if this sounds like fun.

Shauna – ARE YOU ME?? I have Good Will bags sitting in my garage at the moment. And definitely a special shoe rack!Becky – All you need is a sledgehammer and some duct tape. And carpet in the dining area with toddlers is not such a great idea. lolHis Girl – Yeah….Mama P – I love that idea!!! I say go for it!!

No…i need more closet space. My kitchen is great but lacking elsewhere.I can relate to your cleaning techniques.I ended up posting a long post to set up for the APB post and I linked to you.But now having bloggers remorse because I said such personal stuff and feel guilty for mentioning my mother. It was what it was and there are lessons learned but wonder if i should remove it. Hate when i do that!Oh…just found out today that our aunt has lesions on her brain and now they are doing a different treatment. They were going to give her a rest. She is so thin and weak Jen. the docs keep saying we can try something else. I am amazed at all the options. The cancer is gone from her leg and neck but the liver isn’t worse and it isn’t better. i do have faith but this isn’t sounding so good to me. 🙁

My husband and I each have our own closets. When we moved in he added some extra shelves for me and I am all set now. I DO need to go through and sort through the clothes that don’t fit or I won’t ever wear again though. Every morning when I pick through everything and try and figure out what I can actually wear, I think about that. I’m the same way as you with making a bigger mess when trying to clean because I am trying to do a really good job and then get distracted or tired or whatever.

I’m doing some housecleaning today, so I could relate to you.I do NOT like to clean. But, at the same time, I don’t like clutter. So…my house is comfortable, but it could be cleaner. But I’m happy with it! 🙂

My house is messy, but not dirty. I’ve a bad habit of leaving out clutter, but my clutter has a semi-organization. Like when I’m chilling in the living room after work and take off my jewelry, I always leave it on the side table. So when I clean I can take a week’s worth off the table at the same time.I don’t need to organize my closet. I was blessed with an amazing closet. My husband even has his own. Maybe I’ll write up a quick lil blog about it and post pictures.

Hey Jen, it sounds like you and I clean up in very much the same way. That is my biggest complaint about the house, that all of my “cleanup projects” go unfinished, thus making things worse!My closet is a nice big, walkin but we don’t make full use of its size. We should be shoving dressers in there to make more room in the bedroom, which is smaller than our old house (oh how I miss that cozy dormer in our old bedroom!) If I could change anything about it, and afford it, I would have The Closet Factory come in and do their thing so we can store our clothes more efficiently!Take care,Katie

I am so right there with ya! I love keeping things neat, I dislike cleaning but I have to do it or else I go nuts. I am nuts. As for closets, my dang closet is not fit for a 5 3′ person. nope. you have to lift your arms high up to hang something and to make it worse, the closets are iike 4ft deep! What gives?! There’s my rant.

Jenster, you have struck a nerve. There’s not much about my house I don’t like…okay, that’s another lie, but most of it I can live with. My entire bathroom I would GUT from one end to the other. My closet is HORRIBLE! I told the HOFFER that we need to re-do our closets, as well as the ones upstairs for Little Bit and Baby Bit, loooooong before Baby Bit arrives. And with the help of a professional organizer at that!!! We have tried organizing our home in the past, and we are just…not good.

We went from each having a large closet in the apartment to each of us sharing a small square closet. I gues that’s what you get with a 100 year old house, but come on now. Then we also have a closet that is like 6 inches wide-what the heck was supposed to go in there . . .We have plans. Big plans for when we are making big bucks-which as a social worker is a funny thought, but anyways. We will have a larger closet, we have the plans all in our heads. We just need a few thousand dollars to do it. Don’t hold your breath- It may be a while before I can post pictures.

OH, my…I thought it was just me who had clean floors and toilets underneath all that clutter. I too want to take the bull by the horns and CLEAN something if I’m going to clean it at all. Unfortunately, I live in a life full of 15 minute blasts of time and creative energy (unless I’m quilting or blogging), and many is a mess I’ve left laying around the floor, pantry, closet, bathroom because I got the urge to clean. ;)Our closet is okay, but I’m with Becky; if I could change one thing, I’d make our house have a great room rather than a living/family room in 2 pieces. For you see, we haven’t served high tea for the queen in quite some time.Thank you for your sweet b’day wishes. BTW, I have decided for sure to do the 3 day in Seattle in Sept. xxxooogretchen

separated at birth! I am constantly being taken over by my urges to do big projects and then losing steam. Plans for closet…. We are going to dismantle the closet that was built with the house, move it back about 2 feet and steal about 6 feet from my daughter’s room so we can have a walk-in! This will be done before 2009. Mark my words. Or – my construction plans. Shelves for purses – dreamy.

I’m so full of good intentions! I start to “straighten,” but I realize the if I just did this or that thoroughly, well, it would help even more. And, like you, I wind up with more clutter than I began with. Sigh. And I, also, need some structural changes in my home. Not badly enough to actually do them, mind you! But I need them, none the less. I’d love to have a shelf for purses. And built in shoe racks. and cedar lining! My closet isn’t bad. Plenty of room, but it one that stretches all the way down one wall with two doors, and I’d love to have a walk-in. Not in this house, however, because I’d have to extend a wall outside. Nah, I’ll just keep what I have … and whine, thank you very much!!